Renewable Power reaches record-breaking levels this summer

Renewable power generation in the United Kingdom has broken numerous records this summer and even surpassed fossil fuels on one day in June.

Many energy firms have taken advantage of the falling costs of low-carbon technology and have installed thousands of solar panels, resulting in record levels of renewable power.

On the 7th of June, wind, nuclear and solar power held a larger share of the generation mix than coal and gas combined; the first time this has happened as the UK looks to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.

Solar panels also produced over a quarter of the UK’s energy demand on the 26th of May, another landmark in a record break breaking summer.

Home installations have also seen a boom in the UK with an estimated 900,000 projects online despite a decrease in government subsidies in the last 2 years. Many critics believed the end of subsidies would have a major impact on small-scale renewable projects but the sector has continued to show significant growth.

Apollo recently reported on a significant investment in battery storage systems which will further support the renewable energy sector, read more here.

A spokesperson from the Renewable Energy Association said: "Renewables don't always produce when you want them to so storage will help that problem hugely - both at a larger grid scale but also people in their homes.

We're already seeing this year that you'll be able to buy a battery pack that is smaller than your boiler and you will be able to store the electricity that you generate in your home and that's going to change the entire market."

As solar power grows and begins to play a more vital role in meeting the UK’s energy demand, the National Grid could face a few obstacles, one of those being the solar eclipse in 2026 which will result in an hour-long shut out. It is expected that by 2026, the amount of solar panels installed in the UK could have more than doubled.

Claire Spredding from the National Grid said: "One of our scenarios that we're planning for is that we'll have more than double the amount of solar generation than we have now.

We think we could have around 3.5 gigawatts of solar generation that's on the system at that time that will obviously stop generating when the eclipse happens. So now we're working on making sure other sources are online at that time to keep up with demand."